G'day to all! A Chamber of Commerce day here in central Georgia. Been out in the workshop building a table for a farmer friend of mine and starting to get in the short rows with it. The same table on the internet sells for $549 with shipping. Just a token of appreciation for all the help that my life long friends do for me and my family. I am chomping at the bit to get started planting. Corn will probably be the first thing I plant as it can handle a frost and keep on ticking. Yall mentioned earlier about planting cowpeas in the corn. I tried it, but didn't care for it as corn loves nitrogen and peas don't need much of it or you get a lot of vines and not many peas. Plus, my favorite cowpea is Red Rippers and they make a heck of a bush with runners. It gets too 'snakey' to harvest either of them! I live near Eastman, Georgia (Home of Stuckey's candies) and buy my seed at a local home garden center (Chas Mar) as they have a good selection and are reasonably priced compared to ordering from the internet. Soon I will be taking my wife down there to choose the peas and beans she wants me to plant this season. My wife was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, but loves the country. It does my heart good to see her so pleased at looking at the different kinds and making choices. Getting all sloppy now... lol Mr. Brown, I have a friend that lives in Avon Park, Florida (below Orlando) that loves gardening too and wonder if your 'winter home' is near there? George, we should keep quiet about the country life... hee hee We might not be in the country long if the word gets out... Shot

The Cherokee Squaw Corn I'm growing has some variation in the size of kernels, though all are much larger and flatter than say, the corn one gets at the feed store. I'd say that it behaves a lot like flour corn when being ground. I'm pleased with how easy it is to shell and grind. After working with it, the contrast with Mesquakie is very noticeable. Mesquakie Indian corn has a lot more flint-like qualities. It even pops (poorly) when parched in the oven. When we lived in Hidalgo, Mexico my favorite corn for meal and grits was the really large kernel flour corn which one sometimes sees up here, sold as corn nuts. It came in either red or white. In Mexico they make it into hominy and use the kernels in a soup called Pozole. This flour corn was extremely easy to grind and we enjoyed it, both for grits and corn meal. So, I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from trying a flour corn. They are very nice. As an aside, let me tell you an anecdote on our life in Mexico. The first two years was characterized by frustration and hardship. We were grappling with the language and also with the environment. Our family suffered a good many illnesses until we adjusted to the new environment. After two years we were fluent. So the language problem was much relieved. Every six months to a year we'd go to Texas, for car parts and supplies, etc. While there, we'd stock up on some things we couldn't get in Mexico. Two items on our list were always grits and cornmeal. Mexico is the land of corn. But they hardly use cornmeal as we know it and grits are unheard of. So, we'd stock up and then ration until the next border trip. After 5 or 6 years in Mexico, I got to thinking about our love of these two items and the fact that we were surrounded by corn! That's how we learned to grind our own. We experimented! Suddenly we didn't need to ration these items! I often thought that this was taking adaptation to a new level! Blueflint, I'm going to try that recipe. It looks good! George

Look at Keep It simple (KIS) brewer. Much simpler design. I'm seriously considering buying it. I've built Duely Brewer but it's just too much hassle. More and more are switching to KIS brewer from Dueley brewer plus they sell compost including fungal compost and food kit to grow microbes. They think the price for KIS brewer is well worth it. They have been tested many many with great results you are pretty much safe with it. You just don't know what you're getting from mushroom compost and elsewhere from the store. Undisturbed forest floor (the few inches of leaves layer on top of soil) is probably a great one to brew with. Very rich in microbes esp fungal. You might also want to buy Teaming with Microbes by Jeff Lowenfels from Amazon website. Full of good info there. Soil Food Web by Elaine Ingham is the place to start. Read all those e-zines on the website. Bill - that's really a bad advice you're giving there. Please stop that. You have no idea what you're really talking about. Leave it to someone else who really knows about improving soil with compost tea.

Not sure what sources you have been reading, but here in So Cal these plants LOVE our winters because they are cool and rainy (or at least they used to be). Aeoniums are very thirsty plants and it is nearly impossible to overwater them in winters… however, if hot, that is NOT when you want to water them liberally unless you have them in a relatively shady location and water them carefully… these plants do not like broiling summer sun and high heat and low humidity makes their roots shrink up… water them heavily then, and you could easily rot your plant. In your zone 9a, some can be marginal (the variety you have can do well some winters, and have trouble other winters)… some seem very well adapted to this climate (I live in 9a, too, bordering on 8b) and about half the cultivars like the winters, and the other half croak in the cold. But all hate the summers. By the way, your plant in the dark green pot seems a bit etiolated (suffering from lack of light)… may grow faster and taller, but that certainly does not translate necessarily into 'better'. In fact, usually etiolated plants end up being weaker. You always want your Aeoniums to be compact… leaves spread out along the stem like that is not a sign of health. Try to keep your plants it brighter light in winters (summers are a different matter, but full shade is still not ideal… protection from afternoon sun, is, though. plants in February growing in soggy clay, Tarzana, California plants in summer (August) very unhappy… this is NOT a time to water these plants heavily, though plants grown in nearly full shade… colors nearly completely green, though still not too etiolated